With development of mobile Internet technologies, and in particular, with emergence and popularization of intelligent terminals, such as mobile phones and tablet computers, an increasing quantity of users directly use these terminals to access a network. In addition, with rapid development of operating systems and hardware performance of terminals, lots of software originally used on a computer may be used on an intelligent, miniature, and mobile terminal, and in particular, social software is frequently used. The software is generally instant messaging software, and a connection between the software and a network is characterized by abruptness and timing. A piece of instant messaging software is used as an example. The software sends a heartbeat packet on an operating system of a terminal every two minutes, so that the terminal periodically notifies a server of a status of the terminal. When using instant messaging software, a terminal generates a large amount of network signaling to maintain a connection to a server, and the generated signaling is only used for transmitting a few bytes. In a severe case, the signaling may affect a normal service of a network. In addition, considering a development prospect of a future network, a large quantity of terminals are to be connected to the network, and similar to sending an instant message, many terminals discontinuously send data having relatively little content and a relatively short length to the network. As a quantity of terminals increases, a large quantity of network signaling resources are consumed.